It’s time for the second practice session of the day in Zandvoort, following the earlier damp one led by Norris.
Gasly and Sargeant were the first two drivers back on the much drier track, with Perez signing the first timed lap in 1:13.108s, lowered by his teammate Max Verstappen by over a second.
Albon, Tsunoda and Gasly are running on hards, whereas the rest of the grid opted for mediums.
Perez ran wide at Turn 1, mentioning issues with stopping there, whereas Russell and Verstappen both lock up. The reigning champion also runs over the kerbs and opts to return to the pits for a check up.
Ten minutes into the session, the best lap turned in still Vetstappen’s 1:12.131s, joined on the provisional podium by the Mercedes duo.
Leclerc is the latest driver to lock up at Turn 1, with the heavy wind definitely favouring the issue.
Fernando Alonso moves up to provisional P3, 0.250s off the Dutch driver’s time.
Winner of the latest Belgian round Lewis Hamilton is the first driver to sign a lap in the 1:11s fifteen minutes into the session
Nico Hulkenberg’s rear tyres locked up and crashed out twenty minutes into the session, beaching his Haas challenger and hitting the barriers heavily, issueing the first red flag of the session.
Valtteri Bottas has returned behind the wheel of his car no. 77 after being replaced earlier by Robert Shwartzmann, eith the two Sauber drivers sitting at the bottom of the standings at the restart, scheduled for 16:22 local.
Norris moves up to the top spot immediately, signing a 1:10.961s. A few minutes later is time for Norris’s teammate Piastri to take the lead, improving the McLaren driver’s time by 0.200s.
It’s a positive session for Williams, with both drivers almost in the top 5. Times are tumbling however, as Alpine’s Gasly splits the duo.
Russell, who lost the win of the Belgian round due to his underweight car, is the next driver to cycle in P1, only hundreds faster than the Australian at the halfway point of the session.
This is the top 10: Russell, Piastri, Hamilton, Norris, Verstappen, Tsunoda, Alonso, Magnussen, Perez and Ricciardo.
Sainz pits, with Ferrari looking into a gearbox issue on his SF-24, whereas Lewis Hamilton moves up to P3. The top 5 drivers are now all in 0.200, reconfirming the tightness of the F1 field at the moment.
Russell ran wide over the kerbs at Turn 13, asking for his team to check the floor for eventual damage.
Sainz’s FP2 session never resumed due to a shift issue, meanwhile Williams’s unsafe release of Albon ahead of Stroll has been investigated, as well as another instance featuring Zhou and Ricciardo.
In the second half of the session teams preferred to focus on race simulations and longer runs, mostly running on softs.
Leclerc joins the top 10, slotting in P9 ahead of Albon, 0.741s off Russell’s time for the only change in the top 10.
Gasly and Piastri came pretty close in the final moments of the session but didn’t collide.
George Russell thus ends the second practise session after the summer break in the top spot with a 1:10.702s, followed by Oscar Piastri, completely recovered from his broken rib and his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
